planner

## Constructing a Sphere Feature

Construct Sphere dialog box

There are several ways to construct a sphere using Planner. The following table lists the various types of constructed spheres, along with their necessary inputs. Some features may require no inputs while others may require five inputs or more. The term "Any" indicates that the construction can take any type of feature as input for construction. Planner allows the features to be selected in any order.

CONSTRUCT FEATURE TYPE | SYMBOL IN EDIT WINDOW | # OF INPUT FEATS | FEAT #1: | FEAT #2: | COMMENTS
Auto Sphere | - | - | - | - | See "Auto Sphere Construction".
Best Fit Sphere | BF | At least 5 inputs are needed. | - | - | Constructs a best fit sphere using the given inputs. See the Note below for recommended inputs.
Best Fit with Recomp Sphere | BFRE | At least 5 inputs are needed. (1 must be a point) | - | - | Constructs a best fit sphere using the given inputs. See the Note below for recommended inputs.
Cast Sphere | CAST | 1 | Any | - | Constructs a sphere at the centroid of the input feature.
Projected Sphere | PROJ | 1 or 2 | Any | Plane | One input feature will project the sphere to the workplane.
Reverse Sphere | REV | 1 | Sphere | - | Constructs a sphere with a reversed vector.

For Best Fit (BF) or Best Fit Recompensate (BFRE) constructions, while you can use any feature type for your input features, BF and BFRE fit types are typically used with point features or point sets (a scan of points, a feature set with points, or an expression that resolves to an array of points).

If you select inappropriate feature types, Planner displays "Cannot construct [feature]. Combination of input features not accepted." on the status bar.

To construct a sphere:

1. Access the Construct Sphere dialog box (Insert | Feature | Constructed | Sphere).

2. Input the desired features.

3. Select the method of construction. Available options include:

- Auto Sphere

- Best Fit or Best Fit Recompensate Sphere

- Projected Sphere

- Cast Sphere

- Reversed direction Sphere

AUTO is the default method of construction. This option automatically determines the best way to construct a sphere using the input feature(s). See "Auto Sphere Construction".

4. Click the Create button.

When two or more features are involved, Planner automatically determines the necessary order of the input features. This improves the accuracy of the measurement process.

The following topics describe the available options for constructing a sphere.

More:

In / Out Sphere

Auto Sphere Construction

Constructing a Best Fit or Best Fit Recompensate

Constructing a Projected Sphere

Constructing a Cast Sphere

Changing the Direction of a Sphere